Just Saying...

Congratulations to Jeannine Hall Gailey - her book She Returns to the Floating World won a Silver Medal in the 2011 Florida Publishers Association Book Awards. A very well deserved accolade.

Congrats!

Kelli Russell Agodon & Susan Rich are among the finalists for the ForeWord 2010 Book of the Year Award for the category of poetry.  Having read both of the books in question these are very deserving finalists. Congratulations to both!

Oh, and the books~ 

1. Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room / Agodon
2. The Alchemist's Kitchen / Rich

Russian poetry takes translation prizes

The poetry prize went to Elena Fanailova's The Russian Version, translated by Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler and published by Ugly Duckling Presse.

Fanailova is a Russian poet, doctor and radio reporter whose poems brood on bloody, wrenching changes of the last 30 years in Russian history.

Finalists for Best Translated Books

Poetry finalists have been announced for the 2010 Best Translated Book Awards by University of Rochester.  The ten works making the list are:


Nicole Brossard, Selections.
Translated from the French by Guy Bennett, David Dea, Barbara Godard, Pierre Joris, Robert Majzels,
Erin Moure, Jennifer Moxley, Lucille Nelson, LarryShouldice, Fred Wah, Lisa Weil, Anne-Marie Wheeler.
(Canada, University of California)

René Char, The Brittle Age and Returning Upland.
Translated from the French by Gustaf Sobin. (France, Counterpath)

Mahmoud Darwish, If I Were Another.
Translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah. (Palestine, FSG)
Elena Fanailova, The Russian Version.
Translated from the Russian by Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler. (Russia, Ugly Duckling Presse)

Hiromi Ito, Killing Kanoko.
Translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles. (Japan, Action Books)

Marcelijus Martinaitis, KB: The Suspect.
Translated from the Lithuanian by Laima Vince. (Lithuania, White Pine)

Heeduk Ra, Scale and Stairs.
Translated from the Korean by  Woo-Chung Kim and Christopher Merrill. (Korea, White Pine)

Novica Tadic, Dark Things.
Translated from the Serbian by Charles Simic. (Serbia, BOA Editions)


Liliana Ursu, Lightwall.
Translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter. (Romania, Zephyr Press)

Wei Ying-wu, In Such Hard Times.
Translated from the Chinese by Red Pine. (China, Copper Canyon)

Absence of major publishing houses in The National Book Critics Circle

According to The New York Observer, The National Book Critics Circle, an organization made up of about 700 active book critics, announced on Saturday the finalist pool for their end-of-year awards and the Poetry category did not include a single book published by one of the major houses this year.

The nominees in the poetry category included:

Mary Jo Bang, Elegy, Graywolf; Matthea Harvey, Modern Life, Graywolf; Michael O'Brien, Sleeping and Waking, Flood; Tom Pickard, The Ballad of Jamie Allan, Flood; Tadeusz Rozewicz, New Poems, Archipelago.

Is this a trend, or a fluke?

Separating the Art from the Artist... or can we?

A New York Times article [Poetry Prize Sets Off Resignations at Society] details a controversy that has grown within the Poetry Society of America, but it seems to me it has raised even larger questions for the world of arts and literature, questions which I have not formulated a view as of yet.

The issue within the PSA centers around an award, the Frost Medal, which has been awarded to the poet John Hollander. The worthiness of Hollander's poetry itself is not in question, but a statement made by Hollander referring to referred to West African, Mexican and Central American as “cultures without literatures," and an interviewer on NPR who had paraphrased him as saying, “there isn’t much quality work coming from nonwhite poets today.”

Should such remarks be taken into consideration by the PSA or any organization seeking to honor a poet, writer or artist of any kind? Or, should the artistic work they produce be the soul basis for such recognition? The Hollander incident is of course not an isolated incident of controversy among poets. Ezra Pound for example is widely know for his anti-Semitism. Should that fact detract from the literary appreciation of his work? Can we appreciate great works of art and literature without bestowing accolades and honors upon the artists themselves?

No, I still don't have and answer to these questions, and I am sure this is not likely to be the last time this issue arises.

words

Nassau County's Loss

When I first heard the news about the controversy over the Nassau County, New York poet laureate position on Monday, I have to say I was extraordinarily angry. The county was poised to name Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr., it's first poet laureate. But Monday, a county legislative committee voted 6-1 against Wheat when they learned of his 2004 book titled, "Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace."

Peter J. Schmitt, Republican legislator voiced is objection because he felt that Wheat's book condemned the troops fighting for America in Afghanistan and Iraq. Democrat Wayne Wink was the lone legislator who voted to uphold Wheat's nomination.

Since that time, families too have squared off over the issue. But there has been support for Wheat, even from families who have members serving in Iraq.

Linda Geremia, of South Setauket, NY who has a son serving believe the committee did the right thing.

Nicole Lundin, who lost a son recently however saw not contradiction between supporting the troops and opposing the war. Nor did Elaine Brower, who has a son who served there last year.
And Mary Ann Kochman, also with family in Iraq suspected politicians were more concerned with political cover than with poetic excellence.

I've grown a little less angry over this. The reality is that many people see it for what it is. Short sightedness and as Ms. Kochman put it running for political cover. I believe it was Plato who said,"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."

What is sad to me is that Wheat seemed to be an excellent choice. He has written for many years on the natural beauty of the Nassau County region. The people in there will truly miss an opportunity.

There are I suppose always going to be the likes of Peter J. Schmitt, (recipient of my thumbs down award for the day) who are hell bent on defending that which is indefensible. No one I know disrespects the troops and I know precious few people personally who believe this war was ever justified. These young men and women were called upon to serve and (aside from a small handful) have preformed in very difficult circumstances honorably. But they were not the architects of this mistake. The best support was as Americans can give them is to return them safely to their families as quickly as possible.





Sources for this post: here and here

Congratulations Missi Rasmussen

Congratulations are in order for Missi Rasmussen who received the Nicholas Manchion English Scholarship Award at Park University Honors Convocation last night. Her submission of a poem she wrote titled, The Fine Art of Making Breakfast was judged to be the winning poem by the Park University English Department.

Missi is President of KC Metro Verse, a Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society.

Poets & Writers Exchange Contest for poetry

Congratulation to Andres Rodriguez who was the Missouri winner of the Poets & Writers Exchange Contest for poetry. Rodriguez was chosen from a pool of 112 entries. He lives in Kansas City and is the author of Book of the Heart -The Poetics, Letters and Life of John Keats

Patience

"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie." ~ Jean Cocteau

Patience and poetry always keep appearing together.

IN THE NEWS:

• Natasha Tretheway won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for "Native Guard," a collection about black Civil War soldiers who helped protect a fort on Ship Island, a few miles off the Mississippi coast. [story]
• Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer for his reporting how President Bush quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office. This is a compelling piece of journalistic reporting that should get more attention then it has. (click here)

Drama Students Students at Wilton High Commended by Music Theatre International

The saga of Wilton High School's "Voices of Courage" continues. A Broadway musical licensing agency that has been around since 1952, has created a special award to recognize Wilton High School drama students for writing a play on the Iraq war that school school official have blocked from production.

It is not uncommon for the company to give awards to school theater departments for singing, dancing, directing and stage design."However, we are aware that theater is not just about acting, singing, dancing and excelling in performance," says a letter to the students from the company."It is also about positive risk taking for students, working as a community and utilizing theater skills, to present points of view on the stage which comment on the world in which we live."

School principal Timothy H Canty and School Superintendent Gary Richards have censored the production, not only disallowing it on campus, but off campus as well.

A Night at the Oscars from My Comfy Couch

I don't always watch them. In fact I did for years and then just sort of grew away from it but I did tune in last night. The funny thing is I really didn't see anything this year that was up for awards.

I think my interest this year was sparked a bit by the fact that in one way or another I felt connected because of a common thread of creativity. There were a couple of nominations that I did hope would be winners.

• An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary Feature - which won
• Two Hands for Best Documentary Short Subject - which didn't
• Happy Feet for Best Animated Feature Film - which won
• Peter O'Toole in Venus for Best Actor - which didn't

So I guess I was batting .500

I think the best line of the night has to go to Melissa Etheridge who won for her song "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth when she said, "This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom."

I know many tune in to see who is wearing what, but from an environmental standpoint it bothers me to see people spend lavishly thousands of dollars for a dress that they will wear one time. Is this really the best use of our renewable resources?